The Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) has announced the Regional Innovation Clusters initiative awards winners. There are 14 winners from a pool of 79 applicants. There are two categories for these awards: emerging and mature clusters. According to the SBA press release, emerging clusters develop and deploy small business support services in their designated regions and industries, and mature clusters have experience building and implementing programming to support small businesses.

Domestic business R&D expenditures have jumped 15% ($89 billion) from 2021 to 2022. This jump continues a decade-long trend of year-over-year increases, as a new 2022 Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) survey shows. Despite concerns over high inflation, with annual rates of 7% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022, domestic BERD expenditures have also increased in constant USD each year. Adjusted to 2013 USD, expenditures increased 6% ($32.5 billion) from 2021 to 2022 and 71% ($228 billion) over the past 10 years since 2013.

Doing this work in our separate regions and states, we can feel at times like we're the only ones doing what we do. SSTI recognizes it is even hard to explain your work to friends and family. What is a tech-based economic development practitioner? An ecosystem builder? A commercialization professional?  

Listen, refine, apply: Lorain County Community College’s approach to TBED talent development demonstrates a responsive, industry-aligned education strategy. A recent TBED Community of Practice webinar highlighted how this process keeps their semiconductor and microelectronics program in sync with ever-evolving student and industry needs.

Since the inception of I-Corps, only 20% of participants have been women, according to the 2023 National Science Foundation I-Corps biennial program report. A recent paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled Gender Diversity in Academic Entrepreneurship: Social Impact Motives and the NSF I-Corps Program examined this gender gap by investigating how social impact and commercial motives influence engagement in the NSF I-Corps program.

Connect. Discover. Refresh with your peers in Arizona this December. Our newly released agenda will guide you to immersing yourself at SSTI's 2024 Annual Conference. We will explore nearly the full scope of tech-based economic development in session formats that facilitate conversation, new ideas, and new collaboration opportunities. The event will be packed with practical advice, program suggestions, candid sharing of hard lessons learned, and proven practices of success, all for you to take back to your own initiative and region.

Eleven states and two territories, including Puerto Rico, are holding gubernatorial elections this November, with voters in eight of those states (Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia) choosing a new governor to replace either a term-limited incumbent or governors who chose not to seek re-election. In Montana, Utah, and Vermont governors are seeking re-election.

A recent Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City working paper explores the relationship between inter-state mobility, earnings gains, and initial wealth of young college graduates over time, highlighting the impact of debt. The paper Should I Stay or Should I Go? Inter-state Mobility and Earnings Gains of Young College Graduates by Andrew Glover and José Mustre-del-Río proposes a model to explain the decline in mobility.

October 30, 3:00 p.m. EDT | Free

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) could see its first reauthorization since 2004, depending on how the post-election congressional work period progresses. Leaders of the Senate committee that oversees the annual defense bill have agreed to include a proposal to reauthorize EDA’s public works and economic adjustment programs in their negotiations with the House as part of the national defense authorization bill. Sections of the proposal that seem most relevant to tech-based economic development—Build to Scale and Tech Hubs are authorized separately—include codifying the University Centers program (which is authorized but not defined in detail by EDA’s current statutes), creating a new workforce training grant that would enable nonprofits and municipalities to offer new programs and states to provide scholarships, and establishing an office for disaster response so that EDA can be better-prepared to efficiently award future emergency funds.

SSTI recently hosted an informational session with EDA representatives about the 2024 Build to Scale program. The $50 million program is accepting applications until October 28. The recording and slides are now available here for those who missed it or want to review. To help organizations identify counties that meet EDA’s Equity Investment Priority criteria, SSTI has developed a new interactive map. This tool also shows the locations of NSF Engines and EDA Tech Hubs across the country. While not required for eligibility, proposed projects that can demonstrate affiliation with NSF Engines or EDA Tech Hubs can receive up to five points in the evaluation process. Working with rural or persistent poverty counties helps EDA meet its congressional requirements. Access the map here.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced the 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) Stage Two winners. Each received between $50,000 and $150,000 in prize awards to advance their work supporting small businesses and startups in STEM and research and development (R&D) across priority areas like national and economic security, domestic manufacturing and production, and sustainability and biotechnology. The SBA press release announcing the winners stated, “GAFC Stage One prizes emphasized ecosystem network building, while Stage Two efforts focus on the enhanced support that can be provided to small businesses and startups through these Growth Accelerator Partnerships.”